Chairperson and Ministers, the Lebanese-American author, Kahlil Gibran said:
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
Work is defined by some as doing a job for money. Others would say that it is regular paid work that you do for an employer. Be that as it may, the concept of jobs and work has become an essential part of our daily vocabulary, especially for the ANC government in the run-up to the elections.
We all remember the red election posters in 1994, promising jobs, jobs, jobs and promoting the ANC election rhetoric of a "better life for all". And yes, Chairperson, we all know by now that many of those promises remained just promises.
Sir, 16 years after liberation many South Africans are, per capita, poorer and more deprived than before. Despite an era of unprecedented economic growth for almost 14 years, research suggests that the gap between the rich and the poor is making South Africa the mostly economically divided country in the world. Even President Zuma recently admitted that apartheid and the past cannot be blamed for weak or no service delivery 16 years after the dawn of democracy.
Departments like Public Works and Human Settlements are, however, the lifeline and can and must be the catalyst to address these challenges, dealing especially with the poor and the marginalised. These departments, with the leadership and guidance of two able Ministers, must take to heart the advice of self-made billionaire and industrialist Dr Anton Rupert, when he said that you cannot move forward whilst you are looking in the rear- view mirror.
In addressing these challenges, the vision and objectives of the department that are being discussed here today seem to be on the right track to transform South Africa, as envisaged in the Constitution, and primarily based on the Freedom Charter accepted by the Congress of the People in 1955, and very recently in 2008. [Laughter.] We can therefore not accuse the government of not having plans and policies.
However, there is general consensus that there is sometimes not the ability in general to implement these plans, which are lacking and are the single biggest impediment to achieving the goals and service delivery targets of the government.
When these targets are not met for various reasons, the responses by the President, Ministers and government officials are often very strange and sometimes border on the ludicrous. The best example was the dilemma created by the government regarding the promise of creating 500 000 jobs, despite the warning of the reality of the serious impact of the worldwide recession. Instead of accepting their failure, the goalposts were once again shifted by referring to job opportunities created by the government and refraining from the real issue, which is jobs, hon Minister. In reality, many of these jobs are an insult to the dignity of the people that are being supported.
Of greater importance must be the self-worth of the individual, work ethics, productivity of our nation, meeting our needs and addressing the housing backlogs through building sustainable human settlements. To achieve that, it is necessary to acknowledge the wise words of Gibran and not allow a situation where the job-seekers and workers of South Africa "sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy".
In conclusion, Chairperson, I want to thank hon Bloem and hon Tsolo for putting the Department of Public Works in a position for once to get the real audit of the assets in various parks. I thank you. [Applause.]